Saturday With Bouzar and Fahimeh

We had such a nice day Saturday and you know I have a hard time selecting just a couple of pictures to post, so this will be more of a photo album than a narrative.

The first thing Fahimeh did Saturday morning was give Shirin two very cute outfits for Cyrus.
Fahimeh is such a sweet person; I really love her.

At the kitchen table, our usual hang out.

This weekend I learned some very admirable things about Bouzar that I never knew before. For example, he has an amazing compassion for animals and humans that prompts him to perform acts of kindness that are truly outstanding and courageous.

Shirin and I took pictures of each other simultaneously.

After two days of cold rainy weather it became warm and sunny, so of course we took a walk at Winthrop Lake.

Sun in their eyes, the two brothers pose best they can.

I really love this picture of Bouzar and Fahimeh but I was shooting into the sun and the result was very dark. So, though it looks washed out I was able to lighten it enough so you can see their faces.

The topic of this particular walk was the capacity of the Persian language, compared to other languages such as English, to express itself accurately and with precise detail.

Unable to contribute to the above mentioned topic, Shirin leads Gabriel to the wetlands habitat.

Now walking back to the car, they are still debating the language issue...

... prompting Shirin and Gabriel to leave us behind and head back to the house so she can study.

We had the pleasure of Tannaz and Masih (silly Masih!) joining us for dinner. Tannaz hadn't seen her Uncle Bouzar and Aunt Fahimeh for quite some time.

As you can see I prefer action pics to posed pics!

After ghormeh sabzi, rice, tadig, mast chiar, greek "chicken," salad and bread, we munched on the yummy sweets and cookies Tannaz and Masih brought from the Persian store in Atlanta...

... with glass after glass of tea of course.

After lots of laughs and good food Tannaz and Masih leave us :-(

In case you were wondering what the cats are doing throughout all this commotion, sleeping was the primary order of business.

Shirin still had the energy and still remembers how to play the piano. She played some of her old standbys and a couple from "Amelie."

We never hang out in this piano room, so it serves as a storage area for our extra Persian rugs. To me, this picture of Saeed and Bouzar sitting on the rugs (instead of the couch) is priceless!

Her audience looks satiated and languorous!

We have had such a lovely visit and I hate it that I have to go back to work tomorrow. Today we just hung out till Shirin and Gabriel had to leave for Athens, but after dinner tonight it's back to the grind. Fortunately Saeed is not committed to return to work tomorrow and plans to cook more Persian food, always a good thing!
Addendum: After dinner I did not return to the grind; we continued to talk and talk till Saeed finally told me it was time to hit the sack! Shab Bekhar.

Welcome To Bouzar and Fahimeh!

We are so lucky to have Saeed's brother and sister-in-law with us for a few days. Unfortunately I am working every weekday that they are here, but I can enjoy them in the evenings. Here they are looking at some old photographs of the family. The conversations flow back and forth between the two languages and either Fahimeh or I miss out on some of it, but we understand enough! We've enjoyed Saeed's yummy Persian cooking and look forward to Shirin and Gabriel's arrival tomorrow night.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Ok. You have to understand first of all, that this sequence of photographs occurred within approximately 60 seconds. Secondly, you have to understand that Obi is named after Obi-Wan Kenobi, a very prominent character in the Star Wars movies... and not just any character but a Jedi Warrior Master. He takes his namesake's role very seriously.

Here is Saeed, minding his own business, shredding papers. Never mind that he is doing it by hand and the electric shredder is one foot away; that is immaterial to this scene.

Obi notices this pile, irresistible in the very fact that it is paper, his favorite thing to scratch around in and sit on top of. Also notice Saeed's loving facial expression despite the fact that he is losing ownership of his project.

Saeed is under the impression that he can continue to rip his papers,
but Obi's ears go back and...

... he takes a swipe (not pictured) at the offensive hands. Notice Saeed has pulled in his hands lest he lose them to the Jedi Master, who is sporting a very consternating expression on his face. (These mere mortals don't know their place.)

Obviously Saeed hasn't gotten the message and has picked up another sheet of paper to rip. The ears come forward...

... then back as the Jedi Master fixes his steely gaze upon the fool with the hands.

But a Jedi Master is also wise. He knows when to pursue a threat and when to back down when it is nothing more than a harmless oaf. Instead he scritch scratches around in his treasure...

.... and settles back with a piece of it in his mouth.
Long live Obi-Wan Kenobi!

My Valentine Surprise

When I woke up Thursday morning there was a big bag sitting next to the coffee pot with a card. As the coffee was perking I sleepily began pulling the odd-shaped object out of the bag. In it was another bag, and inside it another bag, and inside it a grocery bag with something wrapped in newpaper, and on and on and on. By the time I got to the final bag I was wide awake. This was the end result: a new camera!!

Isn't Saeed wonderful?
Anahita and Shirin have been badgering Saeed to buy me a new camera, not that my current camera doesn't work, but it doesn't work well. He has been doing research and I know he's been looking for a while. So as surprised as I was I wasn't totally shocked, just really happy!

Isn't Saeed wonderful?

I took a close up of the card. This former Christmas card became my Valentine's card. I think it's pretty cute!

Isn't Saeed CRAZY, I mean wonderful?

I hope to find some time this weekend to learn how to use the new camera and install the program that comes with it. It may be a while before you see the pictures taken with it but hopefully it won't be long before I'll have it mastered.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The history of Valentines's Day:
The origins of Valentine's Day trace back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia. Held on February 15, Lupercalia honored the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.In addition to a bountiful feast, Lupercalia festivities are purported to have included the pairing of young women and men. Men would draw women's names from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year's celebration.

While this pairing of couples set the tone for today's holiday, it wasn't called "Valentine's Day" until a priest named Valentine came along. Valentine, a romantic at heart, disobeyed Emperor Claudius II's decree that soldiers remain bachelors. Claudius handed down this decree believing that soldiers would be distracted and unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married or engaged. Valentine defied the emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. As a result of his defiance, Valentine was put to death on February 14. After Valentine's death, he was named a saint. As Christianity spread through Rome, the priests moved Lupercalia from February 15 to February 14 and renamed it St. Valentine's Day to honor Saint Valentine.

What's Cupid got to do with it?
According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Cupid was known to cause people to fall in love by shooting them with his magical arrows. But Cupid didn't just cause others to fall in love - he himself fell deeply in love.
As legend has it, Cupid fell in love with a mortal maiden named Psyche. Cupid married Psyche, but Venus, jealous of Psyche's beauty, forbade her daughter-in-law to look at Cupid. Psyche, of course, couldn't resist temptation and sneaked a peek at her handsome husband. As punishment, Venus demanded that she perform three hard tasks, the last of which caused Psyche's death. Cupid brought Psyche back to life and the gods, moved by their love, granted Pysche immortality. Cupid thus represents the heart and Psyche the (struggles of the) human soul.

Fun Fact:
The expression "wearing your heart on your sleeve" comes from a Valentine's Day party tradition. Young women would write their names on slips of paper to be drawn by young men. A man would then wear a woman's name on his sleeve to claim her as his valentine.

So have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Matt and Amy

Meet Matt and Amy, new friends who moved here from Texas but are originally from New Mexico. They are much closer in age to our children, but ya know, there are just some people you feel in synch with and you can't let the generation gap get in the way! Matt is a new prof at Winthrop and Amy is working on getting a produce/farm coop started here. They're vegetarian and philosophically similar to our way of thinking on virtually all issues.

The true test is will they freak when Obi and Chappu jump on the table (after dinner) as they always do? Nope. Matt makes friends with Obi immediately.

I'm not sure what Obi's facial expression is (you know testy he can be) but Matt and Amy clearly are enjoying Obi's presence.

Shirin referred to Saeed's love and admiration for our toaster (on her blog) but he clearly has some left for Obis Obis.

For dinner we had Greek "chicken", Greek rice, Greek salad (with homemade Greek salad dressing), and Persian mast chiar. Mast chiar, for those of you who don't know, is yogurt, cucumber, and mint; it fits in very well with the Greek palate of flavors.

When we retired to the living room Matt naturally assumed that Obi would be just as friendly on the couch as he was in the kitchen, but after Obi lunged at Matt's hand ...

... he wisely sat back and showed Obi the correct "I'm not going to mess with you" body language and Obi settled in for his nap.

Chappu is the only one who can safely plop down right next to Obi; she provides a buffer between him and Matt...

...which seems to make everyone happy.

Meanwhile Amy makes friends with Frosty, but you know Frosty...

... he doesn't stick around long and before you know it he's snuggling with a booty on the floor or holding onto his rear foot for a good licking.

At some point Chappu takes off and Tippy comes over to get some lovin' too.

Matt is definitely a cat magnet. Even Calvin was happy about Amy and Matt; he often hides in the closet when people come over but he was happily and fearlessly walking around and sitting on the other couch with Saeed and me.

We talked a lot last night but by the end of the evening after Matt had interacted with all the kitties he decided he wanted to take Chappu home with him. Here they are holding hands.

Well, Chappu decided to stay with us, not so much for our sake but she would miss Obi and Tippy too much. And anyway, Amy and Matt have a dog, so Matt had to go home without her.

My Desktop's The Best

The replacement part arrived today (thanks Gabriel and Shirin!) and Saeed kindly fixed my problem, so here I am on my desktop again. Why don't I just use my laptop you ask? Because then IT'S on my lap instead of one of my puddy tats! Just look at what Banu's been missing the last couple of weeks:

I wuv my mommy.

The computer is set up near an upstairs window, so in addition to snuggling on a warm lap there's a great view of birds, people walking their dogs, and kids on bikes.

My challenge is typing without full mobility of my left arm.

Banu periodically sees only just the tails of birds as they hang their bums out over the edge of the gutter...

... but let me tell you, it must be totally mesmerizing.

All that birdwatching is exhausting.

So, I hope to be blogging a bit more regularly again. Saeed and I are trying to exercise more, so time is at a premium and the blog must come second.

Still Waiting

Still waiting for the replacement part so I can access my photos again... be back soon, I hope.

I'm Back Up.... Temporarily

My wonderful Gabriel has figured out the problem with my computer - a part that needs to be replaced involving a fan. My computer is running now because I'm using that part from Saeed's computer which must be returned by tonight so he can use it tomorrow morning. Gabriel will send us the replacement in the mail, so I hope to be up and running again soon. So quickly, here's a run down of events including last weekend in Atlanta/Athens.

As you've probably read in Shirin's blog we went to Atlanta to visit Saeed's niece (who lives there) and nephew (who's visiting from England.) Here is Salar, meeting with his Uncle Saeed for the first time. It was heart-warming to watch these two men try to catch up on 30 years of life events, including stories about Salar's dad (Saeed's brother) when they lived together as college students in the 1960's in the US. Lots of laughs and a few sighs; Salar's dad died a couple of years ago.

Salar and sister Tannaz.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Tannaz's husband, Masih, was the kitchen slave! Actually Tannaz and Salar's mom cooked us a most wonderful vegetarian meal. Somehow I didn't get a picture of her, but she was at our house at Thanksgiving if you want to look at those pictures.

We drove from Atlanta to Athens for a brief visit with Shirin and Gabriel.

I got to feel little baby Cyrus kick!

Happily (since our visit last weekend was so short) Shirin and Gabriel came home this weekend. Today Shirin and I chose to make a quick trip to the store together, but not before going out for some...

... Viet Namese food! You will never see Shirin happier than when she is eating some Asian soup. Saeed likes to put people in difficult situations and see how they squirm; I hope he never puts Gabriel on the left, and a bowl of Asian soup on the right, and tells Shirin to pick ONE!

We hope to watch the Superbowl together tomorrow but it starts so late that they may have to head back to Athens. We'll see. If I take any more pics I won't be able to blog them till later. At least I now know the problem and Gabriel can fix it. Yay!